The year 2014

25 Mar 2014 - Diablo III - Reaper of Souls

After Diablo is defeated by the Nephalem (the player character), Tyrael recovers the Black Soulstone that contains the essence of all seven of the Great Evils. Knowing it is too dangerous to leave it in the hands of mortals or angels, he and six Horadrim take the Black Soulstone back to Sanctuary and attempt to seal it away where it can never be found - deep in the tomb of Rakkis, the first King of Westmarch, the kingdom established to the west of Khanduras. However, the group is ambushed by Malthael, former Archangel of Wisdom and member of the Angiris Council, who had disappeared after the destruction of the Worldstone after it was corrupted by Baal twenty years earlier (at the end of Diablo II: Lord of Destruction). Now calling himself the "Angel of Death", Malthael kills all but one of the Horadrim, incapacitating Tyrael in the process, and takes the Black Soulstone.

Tyrael sends the surviving Horadrim, Lorath Nahr, to locate the Nephalem. Nahr encounters the Nephalem outside Westmarch City, which has been overrun by the Reapers, Malthael's army of enslaved spirits and renegade angels. With the gates blocked, the Nephalem fights through the city sewers to the Zakarum cathedral in the city center, where they encounter Tyrael. Tyrael reveals that with Diablo gone, Malthael sees humanity as a race of demons based on their descent from the original Nephalem, the offspring of angels and demons; by wiping out humanity, Malthael hopes to end the Eternal Conflict, the long war between Heaven and Hell. A sliver broke off from the Black Soulstone when Malthael took it, and Tyrael attempts to use it to discover Malthael's plans. The Reapers deploy two soul crucibles into Westmarch City to claim the souls of the dead, and the Nephalem locates and destroys them, earning the ire of Urzael, Malthael's chief lieutenant, who awaits the hero in Westmarch Heights. The Nephalem tracks Urzael down to the Spire of Korelon and defeats him in a gruesome battle.

Reaper of Souls adds a number of new features to the core gameplay of Diablo III. These include:

A new character class, the Crusader, who specializes in defensive play, large weapons (including newly introduced types like flails), specialized "Crusader shields", and holy magic.

A fifth Act is added, which follows the Nephalem's quest through the remains of Westmarch and the Pandemonium Fortress to stop Malthael and his allies.

In addition to the campaign, the expansion adds an "Adventure Mode", where players are free to roam the entire world and take on random Bounties and dungeons (called "Nephalem Rifts") at their leisure.

A new artisan, the Mystic, can enhance the properties and appearance of the player's equipment.

The expansion also raises the level cap to 70 (up from 60), and adds new skills, runes, and passive abilities for all characters, and adds a fourth slot for passive skills that unlocks when the character reaches level 70.